ABOARD THE USS YORKTOWN—Moments before Marquette and Ohio State were supposed to tip off the second annual Carrier Classic, Marquette junior Jamil Wilson saw something that made him stop in his tracks.

Or, at least, try to stop. Considering the conditions, that was easier said than done.

“I literally watched Trent (Lockett) slide about 4 feet just taking one step,” Wilson said with a smile. “That’s when we got held up.”

The court on the flight deck of the USS Yorktown in Charleston Harbor, which had been just fine for the Notre Dame-Ohio State women’s game that started at 4 p.m. ET, was building up condensation at a rapid pace just a few minutes after 7 p.m.

The floor crew came out with their towels and dry mops. The players, including Wilson, grabbed towels off the bench and joined in the effort. People wearing headsets and people wearing uniforms scrubbed and wiped as vigorously as they could.

“Anything to play,” Wilson said. “Just trying to get things going, hoping we could absorb everything, soak something up and dry out. It really wasn’t working.”

And it didn’t work.

Even a 20-minute “assessment” period—the theory was, if the heat in the deck below was turned off and the temperate outside dropped a tiny bit more, perhaps the condensation would slow to a manageable level—just delayed the obvious.

“Our women’s team just played,” Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said. “I didn’t anticipate this. We were all happy because the sun was out, and there was no wind. Yesterday, there was a 20-mph wind and we couldn’t shoot the ball. So we were going into the game all excited.”

The final decision was a collaboration between the coaches—Marquette’s Buzz Williams and Ohio State’s Thad Matta—the officials, the event directors and the athletic directors, Smith and Marquette’s Larry Williams.

“The bottom line is, we can’t take a risk with any kid,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t want to be that person who calls a parent, after we went through all that discussion, whose kid got injured.”

Had the game been scheduled for a few hours earlier, or played indoors, this would have been a fascinating matchup between two intriguing teams.

Both are learning to deal with significant player losses—Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and William Buford and Marquette’s Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom are all playing professionally—but both have rosters full of talent. The Buckeyes have two potential All-Americans, ace scorer Deshaun Thomas and ace defender Aaron Craft. The Golden Eagles have the same coach, Williams, and always play the same maniacal style regardless of the roster pieces.

For an opening game, there’s no telling what could have happened on the court.

That is why canceling the game—it won’t be rescheduled—was disappointing, even though it was the right thing to do. Clearly.

But don’t call it a wasted trip for the teams.

“It’s a huge disappointment, not being able to play,” Wilson said. “But then again, being down here and being around the soldiers who served their time, the veterans, the wounded warriors, just the experience of being around these guys and learning a little bit about their story, where they’re from, what they’ve gone through. That makes up for it, at the end of the day.

“I even met one who just got back three weeks ago. That was pretty cool. Just the experience of meeting those guys—knowing they’re so humble and grounded after everything they go through—that makes the experience so much better.”

And the fact the players are heading back healthy, sans torn ACLs or sprained ankles or concussions or anything else that could have happened as the result of a fall on the slick court, isn’t such a bad thing, either.